Process of identifying laundry articles



Patented Oct. 6, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ARTICLE Leonard S. Smith, Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio No Drawing. Application April 19, 1935, Serial No. 17,367

' 5 Claims.

In commercial laundries it is now the custom to identify laundry articles by printing or marking on each article an identification mark with ink having sufiicient permanence to withstand the laundry operations and be clearly readable thereafter for purposes of identification and redistribution of the articles thus laundered.

There are, however, many laundry articles upon which it is objectionable to place a permanent visible identification mark, and for this reason it is now the custom in commercial laundries to provide detachable identification tabs, some of which are made of metal and which may be clamped or otherwise secured to the laundry articles, and others are made of fabric which may be sewed or stitched to the laundry articles.

These tabs are'objectionable, first on account of 30 laundering process so that laundry articles thus supplied with identification marks will not be objected to on account of the visibility of such identification marks when delivered to the customer. More particularly it is my object to provide a process for identifying laundry articles in which the various laundry articles may be supplied with identification marks by the use'of an ink containing a normally invisible substance and which may be appliedto the laundry articles by the use of an ordinary laundry marking machine used in theordinary manner, and in which process there will be removed from the laundry articles, somewhere in the laundering operation, not only the objectionable foreign matter or dirt contained in the article being laundered, but any such objectionable or normally visible substances that may be contained in the ink without removing from the article all of the naturally invisible substance, but leaving remaining therein a sufficient quantity of said normally invisible substance so that, as the final step inthe process is being carried out, the operator may cause this remaining normally invisible substance remaining in the mark to be acted upon by radiant energy in such manner as to cause it to become clearly visible for purposes of identification and redistribution and at the same time be invisible under normal conditions for all practical purposes.

My invention consists in the arrangement and combination of the various steps of we process herein defined, whereby the objects contemplated may be attained. In carrying out myimproved process 1 first provide an ink which for purposes of illustration may be composed of the following ingredients and proportions:

Part by volume? Petroleum jelly 1 Xylene 3 which may be compounded by heating and stirring. This ink or some equivalent therefor, is applied to a laundry marking machine in the same manner as is now employed with the ink now commonly used on laundry articles.

This ink will be caused either by the pressure of the laundry marking machine upon which it is applied, or by its fluidity to deeply penetrate in the fabric of the article to be marked in such manner that it will carry into said fabric and into the fibers or the spaces between the fibers, portions of the substance of which the ink is composed, and become fixed therein. By the term fixed as herein employed, I mean that certain portions of the substances of which the ink is composed, become fixed to the fabric either by adhering to the surfaces of the particles of the fibers of the fabric, or by being lodged within the spaces between or within the fibers of the fabric, or because of the natural aflinity of the fabric for the substance of the ink, or by a chemical combination that results in the formation within or between the fibers of the fabric of sufficient solidity to cause their afiixation therein. But I do not wish to be understood as limiting my invention and claims to that degree of fixation which amounts to absolute permanence but only such degree of fixation as will cause a sufficient amount of the luminescent substance to remain in the article after having been subjected to' the action of one or more laundering operations.

When the laundry article. has thus been supplied with an identification mark with portions of the substance of the ink thus fixed within or between the fibers of the fabric, then the article is subjected to a so-called laundering operation. 'In this operation it is, of course, desirable that all objectionable foreign substances or dirt or soil be removed from the article being launitself. During this laundering operation, including all of the various steps thereof, there remains in the fibers or the spaces between the fibers of the fabric, a sufiicient quantity of some of the substances of the ink for purposes of final identification in a manner to be hereinafter described.

By the term laundry operation. as herein employed I mean to include various parts of an ordinary commercial laundering operation such for instance:

First, washing the articles in a solution containing soap or other chemicals usually employed in commercial laundries; then rinsing same and repeating such washing and rinsing operations to the desired extent; then the ordinary bluing and bleaching operation, and then the ordinary so-called souring operation for the removal of small traces of soap; then extracting the surplus liquid; then drying and starching and ironing.

In textile millswhere material such as sheeting, pillow slips, so-called yard goods, etc., is woven, it is customary to apply identification marks to portions of such woven fabric. These identification marks are usually placed on a marginal portion of the fabric which later is 'removed and results in considerable loss because these removed marginal edges are of little or no value. After many of these textile fabrics are finished they are subjected to scouring, bleaching, and other processes similar in some respects to laundering, and by the term laundering operation as herein employed, I mean to include such operations as are customarily carried on in preparing such textilefabrics for the market. By the term of laundering operation as herein employed I also mean to include the so-called dry cleaning operations in which naptha, gasolene and like substances are employed.

If the laundering operation before defined is used, or if any other laundering operation is employed, the result is that there is removed from the laundry articles all of the objectionable substances or' dirt, or soil, and during this laundering operation there will have been removed a considerable portion of the substances with which the ink is composed. I have demonstrated that after such laundry operations there will remain within or between the fibers of the laundry articles a sufficient quantity of the substances of the ink' for the purposes of final identification.

It is desirable that the ink used in my improved process is of such viscosity and has such sticky or adhesive characteristics that it will adhere to the type of a printing machine in the manner of ordinary printing ink. It is important that all, or substantially all, of this viscous sticky or adhesive substance be removed prior to the completion of a laundering operation because a laundry article to be identified may have upon its surface a considerable quantity of soil or discoloration, and if this soil'or discoloration had happened to be beneath the identification mark impressed upon the article, then unless and until the said substance of the mark was removed, the soil and discoloration beneath the mark could not be removed, and in view of the fact that the ink is transparent, or substantially so, this soil or discoloration would be normally visible and, hence, objectionable. Hence, the viscous sticky or adhesive substance of the ink employed in my new process is preferably of such character that substantially all of it is capable of being removed prior to completion of the laundering operation, except only such portions of it as are necessary to causethe normally invisible subotherwise sufliciently visible for identification stances to become fixed into and around the fibers of the fabric. Hence, after the removal of the viscous sticky or adhesive substances the fibers of the fabric are not held together thereby, and the various liquids, alkalies and acids 5 used in a laundering process may freely flow through the fabric and around the fibers and remove substantially all of such objectionable substances. This removal of the objectionable substances of the ink may be taken as a prelimi- 10 nary step to the final operation or itmay be carried out as part of the laundering operation.

When my improved process has been repeatedly used within a laundry, some of the articles which have been previously thus marked will be 15 returned, and it is, of course, desirable that a new so-called invisible mark be placed upon the article in a space not previoufily occupied by a previous so-called invisible mark, and it is also desirable that the operator of the markingma- 20' When it is desired to identify the laundry articles for purposes of redistribution or the like, the articles are then subjected to the action of radiant energy which will cause the remaining substances of said ink to become luminescent or 35 purposes.

For this purpose I have had satisfactory results by using an ultra-violet ray lamp and exposing the laundry articles to the rays of the lamp; and when this is done the remaining particles of the 40 ink within the fabric will be energized to such an. extent as to become brilliantly luminescent and thereby readily visible to the human eye for identification purposes. 'me v i i ilty is, of course, increased if the ultra-violet lamps are 4 thus used in the absence of visible light. In practice I preferably provide in the asserting room minute particles and in such minute quantities so they do not makean objectionable mark in light visible to the human eye, and which remain in the article after the laundering operation, so 60 that the said mark will be invisible or approximately invisible to the human eye under such conditions. By the term radiant energy as em-- ployed herein, I mean to include radium emanations, X-rays, ultra-violet light.

In this connection I do not desire to be understood as limiting my invention to any of the specified ranges of radiant energy, and have given these simply as examples.

I have found in actual practice that by em- 7i ploying an ink of a character specifically mentioned herein, and by employing an ultra-violet lamp, together with or without an ultra-violet ,filter, and using these mediumsin carrying out the steps of my improved process as hereinb'efore II defined,Ihave been enabled to effect a substantial saving in the cost of operating the identification portions of a laundry operation. To illustrate: the operations in the marking room are speeded because, when black marking ink is used, the operator of the marking machine must find and place the mark upon an obscure place on the laundry article, whereas, with my improved process, the mark is placed in a prominent place or in a place which is quickly accessible to the operator.

My improved process also speeds operations in the assorting room because the identification marks may be made of large sizes, much larger than would be practicable with black ink, and with the marks placed on easily accessible portions of the laundry article, they may be quickly foimd by the assorting operator. Furthermore, many laundry articles, during the ironing operation, are folded, and with black ink identification marks the operator is usually required to fold them in such manner that the identification mark cannot 'be seen. Hence, in the assorting room, these folded garments must be unfolded by the operator in order to view the identification mark, whereas, with my improved process the mark is preferably placed on the exterior of the folded article where it may be readily seen without unfolding or handling the article.

I have eliminated the necessity for marking certain laundry articles with detachable tabs, and

have thereby avoided injuries and dangers in connection'with the use of detachable metal tabs, and have effected an identification operation in a laundry of the greatest accuracy, resulting in a minimum loss of laundry articles, and all of the articles thus marked and identified, when viewed under normal conditions, do not contain any objectionally visible mark, thereby removing all objections as to visibility of laundry identification marks after the laundering process.

By the term viscous as herein employed, I refer to that degree of viscosity as will cause the ink to adhere to a marking implement of the kind in common use, in such manner as to enable the operator to print characters, letters or the like upon fabrics in the ordinary manner, and deposit substantial quantities of the ink upon the surface of the fabric being marked.

I claim as my invention:

1. An improvement in the art of fabric identification marking, which consists in printing upon a fabric an identification mark comprising letters, symbols or the like, with an ink of a viscous or sticky character and containing a substance substantially colorless and invisible in normal light, and which is made fluorescent upon the application of radiant energy froman extraneous source, then removing substantially all of said viscous or sticky substance from the surface of the fabric so that the'surface of the fabric previously covered by the mark will be clearly visible, and leaving in and around the fibers of the fabric small quantities of said fluorescent substances, arranged in the same pattern as that of the mark when applied, and capable of being made clearly visible upon the application of radiant energy from an extraneous source.

2. The art of fabric identification which consists in applying to a fabric an identification mark in the form of letters, symbols or the like, with an ink of a viscous character and having deeply penetrating qualities and whereby relatively large quantities of the-ink will be deposited upon the surface of the fabric and relatively small quantities thereof will be carried deeply into and around the fibers of the fabric, said ink also containing a substance substantially colorless and invisible in normal light and capable of becoming fiuorescent or otherwise visible upon the application of radiant energy from an extraneous source, then removing substantially all of said viscous substance from the fabric and leaving therein portions of said colorless substance arranged in patterns corresponding to those of the applied identification mark.

3. The art of fabric identification which consists in applying to a fabric an identification mark in the form of letters, symbols or the like, with an ink of a viscous character and having deeply penetrating qualities and whereby relatively large quantities of the ink will be deposited upon the surface of the fabric and relatively small quantities thereof will be carried deeply into and around the fibers of the fabric, said ink also containing a substance substantially colorless and invisible in normal light and capable of becoming fiuores cent or otherwise visible upon the application of radiant energy from an extraneous source, then subjecting the fabric to an ordinary laundering operation thereby removing substantially all of said viscous substance from the fabric and leaving therein portions of said colorless substance arranged in patterns corresponding to those of the applied identification mark.

4. An improvement in the art of fabric identification marking which consists in printing upon a fabric an identification mark comprising letters, symbols or the like, with an ink of a viscous or sticky character and containing a substance substantially colorless and invisible in normal light and in the absence of light, and which is made fluorescent upon the application of radiant energy from an extraneous source, then removing substantially all of said viscous or sticky substance from the surface of the fabric so that the surface of the fabric previously covered by the mark will be clearly visible, and leaving .in and around the fibers of the fabric small quantities of said fluorescent substance. arranged in the same pattern as that of the mark when applied, and capable of being made clearly visible upon the application of radiant energy from an extraneous source.

5. An improvement in the art of laundry identification which consists in applying to the laundry article an identifi'cationmark in the form of letters, symbols or the like, with an ink of a viscous character and having deeply penetrating qualities,

.and whereby relatively large quantities of the ink will be deposited upon the surface of the laundry articles and relatively small particles thereof will be carried deeply into and around the fibers of the fabric, said ink also containing a substance substantially colorless and invisible in normal light and capable of becoming fluorescent or otherwise visible on the application of radiant energy from an extraneous source, then subjecting the article to a laundering operation and thereby removing substantially all of said viscous substance from the fabric and leaving therein portions of colorless substances arranged in patterns corresponding to those of the applied identification mark, whereby the laundry identification mark on the article may be easily and clearly read on the application of rays from an ultra violet lamp or the like to the article containing the mark.

LEONARD S. SMITH, JR. 

